The documents also provide a fresh window into Epstein’s behavior during his 36 days in jail, including his previously unreported attempt to connect by mail with another high-profile pedophile: Larry Nassar, the U.S. gymnastics team doctor convicted of sexually abusing scores of athletes.

Epstein’s letter to Nassar was found returned to sender in the jail’s mail room weeks after Epstein’s death. “It appeared he mailed it out and it was returned back to him,” the investigator who found the letter told a prison official by email. “I am not sure if I should open it or should we hand it over to anyone?” …

The night before Epstein’s death, he excused himself from a meeting with his lawyers to make a telephone call to his family. According to a memo from a unit manager, Epstein told a jail employee that he was calling his mother, who’d been dead for 15 years at that point.

[I think Epstein killed himself; these documents, at least as reported by the AP, seems to lend more weight to that conclusion. He was profoundly depressed and disturbed, and perhaps even delusional, according to the testimony in these materials. It’s unclear why he wanted to contact Nassar — the FOIA didn’t produce the letter itself — but that speaks to Epstein’s deranged state of mind. — Ed]